The year gone by

A month ago, my first year in the US has passed, a fact my mom never forgets to mention everytime I talk to her. She can't believe that its been a year since I moved and Im like "its already a year? phew time flew fast". I guess when you are in the process of constantly learning things, like how to cook, adapt, do laundry, drive and clean, it looks like a year well spent. I suppose its going to be that way for very many years because I've yet to learn many things I need to.

Besides my graduate work, for which Im here, the past year has been about lessons learned, some embarrassing, some funny and some tough ones. Learning new things and un-learning things which have sort of found a way into me has taken the best part of the year. The most important lessons have been about professionalism, courtesy and living single. Learning to look left before you look right before crossing the road has been the most toughest one I must add ;)

Sharing an apartment and duties has been a new experience, especially since one has to carefully tread around bruised egos just like the way you need to handle a field of land mine. Nevertheless, its been another lesson on diplomacy and tact. Cooking, well I cant say enough about it. From a guy who was mortally scared of lighting a stove (dont ask me why) to a pretty good cook, its been a great adventure. Scorched vessels, burnt hands and cut fingers, its been fun. One thing I've realised is that no amount of cook books with zillion recipes are going to help. It takes a pinch of common sense, large amounts of general knowledge and concentration. Yeah, concentration, cooking is not learnt by committing ingredients to memory and training your motor memory to do the stuff.

My parents have already started talking about the time I'll be coming back, which is too far off to say definitively because lets face it, Im in grad school. So places to go, things to do and stuff to learn before I rest. (my version of a popular saying) :))